There’ve been rumblings about it for months, but we finally know for sure that Sherlock and The Hobbit star Benedict Cumberbatch will get all Shakespearean and give London his Hamlet. The production, which already looks to be one of 2015’s highlights, will play at the Barbican.

I know we’re barely three months into 2014 and already we’re looking forward to next year, but Cumberbatch fans aren’t the only people getting excited about 2015.

The National Theatre has looked that far ahead and announced a season including new plays by David Hare, Tom Stoppard and Richard Bean alongside an adaptation of Treasure Island and Helen McCrory starring in Medea.

Hit musicals Thriller Live and The Commitments have also cast their eyes that way and announced extensions to their popular runs taking them into 2015.

Kevin Spacey’s not thinking quite that far in advance. The Artistic Director of the Old Vic has only announced plans until the end of 2014. He’ll be taking to the stage in May to play ground-breaking lawyer Clarence Darrow in a one-man show, followed by a modern take on The Crucible and Kristin Scott Thomas starring in Greek tragedy Electra.

At the Adelphi Theatre, one British music mega star will replace another as X Factor winner Alexandra Burke takes over from soul sensation Beverley Knight as The Bodyguard’s Rachel Marron from 2 June. By all accounts Knight has made a big impression since making her stage debut in the Whitney Houston musical; let’s hope Burke can do the same.

Just one more thing, if you’re wondering what to do on the evening of 13 April, the answer is watch the Olivier Awards with MasterCard. The show’s fantastic performances have been announced and include all the nominated Best New Musical and Audience Award shows, Broadway star Bernadette Peters and ABBA’s Benny and Björn joining the cast of Mamma Mia! to celebrate the show’s 15th birthday. Tune in to ITV from 22:15 to see all the best bits.

]]>Interview with Richard Bean, Playwright of One Man, Two Guvnorshttp://blog.visitlondon.com/2013/05/interview-with-richard-bean-playwright-of-one-man-two-guvnors/
Wed, 08 May 2013 10:00:52 +0000http://blog.visitlondon.com/?p=32533Born in Hull, Richard Bean worked as an occupational psychologist and stand-up comedian before becoming a playwright. His plays include Honeymoon Suite, Harvest, The Heretic, Toast, The Big Fellah, England People Very Nice and an adaptation of Molière’s The Hypochondriac. One Man, Two Guvnors is Bean’s modern English version of Carlo Goldoni’s classic Italian comedy, The Servant of Two Masters.

How does writing an adaptation compare to writing an original play?
Writing an adaptation is pleasurable because someone’s already written the ending. Deciding how to end a play is a writer’s torture. With adaptations, you just have to make the plot work in the context you’ve decided on. One Man, Two Guvnors is set in Brighton in 1963. All I had to worry about was making it funny.

The Servant of Two Masters is very much of its period. What are the problems in adapting and updating a work of this genre?
The main problem to solve was that the original plot revolved around arranged marriage and that didn’t exist in the 1960s, except within certain cultures. The solution we came up with was to create a marriage of convenience because one of the parties was gay and wanted to hide that fact by marrying a woman. The second problem was the sword fighting that features in the original. In the 1960s, East End gangsters carried around flick knives so that introduced the gangster concept to the adaptation.

You’ve relocated the play from 18th century Venice to 1960s Brighton. How did that come about?
I had many early discussions with Nick Hytner, the production’s director, about where to set it. As food is such a motivating factor for the central character, my original idea was to set it just after World War II because food was still being rationed. Nick wasn’t keen on that as he thought using military colours for the set and costumes would be too muted. He wanted to have more primary colours in the mix so we settled on 1963.

You’ve retained many elements of Commedia dell’arte (Italian comedy). Was this important to you?
I wanted to keep most of the stock characters from the genre, but put a 1963 spin on them. So, for example, the birth of feminism gave us the character of Dolly. Although it’s not fashionable in contemporary theatre to have asides to the audience, I kept them in as I wanted to make an accessible, popular comedy that would find a new audience for the National Theatre.